What does it mean to be a Christian?

We sometimes get so focused on trying to win people to Christ that we often mislead people into thinking that “when” and “if” they get saved their problems will vanish. We know that God loves them and wants a relationship with them, but we have to be honest with people and let them know what they are really getting into when they become a Christian. Yes, Jesus paid the price for our salvation, and that salvation is a gift that we can freely receive, but in order to make room in our hearts for that gift, we have to get rid of some things in our lives that do not honor God. It is not just enough to say, “Jesus come into my heart” and never change our actions and desires. Jesus made it possible for us to become His disciples, but He leaves that decision up to us. He never told us it would be easy. In fact, Jesus said that if we were going to be His disciples we would have to do three things: deny, die, and follow. To say it better, He requires us to put some “walk” behind our “talk”!

What Does It Mean to “Deny Myself”?
Before we came to know Jesus as our Lord and Savior we basically did what we wanted to do. Most of us knew “right” from “wrong”, but we made the choice to do wrong because we were not serving God. What must be realized is that after we get saved, God doesn’t take away our ability to choose between what is right and wrong. Not only that, but sometimes we still have some of the same desires that we had before accepting Christ. This is where our walk with Christ becomes more difficult.
When we know what is right but have a desire to do what is wrong, we have to choose the right thing for the right reason. This is called “denying ourselves”. Many people do the right things for the wrong reasons. For example, a person decides not to cheat on a test because their teacher is watching, but if that teacher wasn’t watching, that person would cheat. That is not “denying oneself”. But, when there is an opportunity to cheat without getting caught, and the person doesn’t cheat because they know it displeases Christ, then that person has “denied” him/herself and done the right thing for the right reason.

Why Do I Have To “Die To Sin”?
Christ said that to be His disciples, not only do we have to deny ourselves, but we must also “take up the cross”. This statement means that just as He took up the cross and allowed Himself to be killed, so must we allow ourselves to die to the sin in our lives. Christ died for our sin, but we must die to our sins. This commandment was given by Christ for our own benefit.
The apostle Paul tells us in his writings to Rome that “the wages of sin is death”. He warns us of what sin will lead to if we don’t execute it out of our lives. The book of Hebrews tells us to “put aside every weight and the sin” that keeps us from truly obeying God. These two verses are absolutes for understanding how powerful sin can become if we choose not to deny ourselves and die to our sins. An example from Roman history to show how deadly sin really is can be seen from the way the Romans punished murderers during the time of Paul’s writing.
According to tradition, if a person was convicted of murder, the dead body of the person killed was strapped, cheek to cheek, to the body of the murderer. The murderer would have to live the rest of his life with this corpse strapped to him. The corpse, as it decayed, would eventually disease the body of the murderer, and the murderer would literally die from the person that he killed. This is how sin works! If we fail to destroy it, it attaches itself to us and eventually destroys us. It is no wonder why Paul said “the wages of sin is death”. Christ commands us to die to sin because He knows that what we fail to destroy will destroy us.

What Is So Hard About Following Christ:
It probably seems like this third requirement for being a disciple of Christ is the easiest, but that is not the case. To understand why this is not easy just put yourself in Jesus’ sandals. If we spend some time in Christ’s shoes we see that He was always having to avoid traps that the enemy had set to destroy Him. Even from the time of His birth people were trying to kill Him. As Jesus grew older and began to do miracles and teach, He was constantly ridiculed and even kicked out of town for being compassionate. Not only that, but His closest friends turned their backs on Him. Christ allowed Himself to become so poor that He had to borrow meals to eat, borrow a boat to rest in, and even borrow a tomb to be buried in. Most importantly, He even gave His life for those who hated Him. He has given us the commandment, that as His disciples, we should love others as He loved us. To follow Jesus means to be like Jesus, and this, we have to choose to do. Jesus doesn’t make us follow Him.

When Christ was giving people the opportunity to become His disciples He made it very clear what was expected of them and the price they would pay for following Him. He told them that if they followed Him they would lose their lives. He also told them that the only way to experience “true” and “everlasting” life is for them to lose their life for His sake. According to history, this is exactly what happened. Every one of the twelve disciples died a martyr’s death. Every one of them was murdered because they would not denounce Christ. They denied themselves, they took up their crosses, and they followed Him. What does it mean to be a Christian? Die! Deny! Follow!